Archive for the ‘Marc Ross’ Category

Quick summary: We did not get Braylon Edwards, so that was disappointing. It always takes years to grade picks, but with that said, the early word is that Nicks and Sintim were uninspiring picks while Beatty was a great pick at 60 for us. That does not mean that Nicks and Sintim will not work and that Beatty will be a star. It just means that we were disappointed we did not take Rey Maualuga at #29.

We’ll pose a question to everyone- would you trade Nicks and a ~4th rounder for All Pro Braylon Edwards? Of course you would. And that is why this draft thus far is less than inspiring. Let’s talk about the good things about Hakeem Nicks first. He has good hands. He did not drop a single ball in passing drills during his workout for the Giants. So considering that Edwards dropped the ball a league-leading 12 times, you can spin this positively and say the Giants want the hands. Nicks is the player who made the circus catch where he pulls the ball out from behind his back. So let’s hope those hands do it for the Giants.

Wonder was disappointed that Britt was not chosen. There were many of us (myself included) who did not want to DRAFT a WR (NICKS OR BRITT) THIS HIGH at all, but more on that subject below. Britt is taller and faster, jumps higher, so Wonder wants the upside, the potential. You cannot teach size and speed. Nicks is currently a better player than Britt. But everyone needs to improve a great deal for the Pro Level, and Wonder is thinking not only where you are but where you can ascend to in coming years. 3 years. The # for WRs developmentally. Tennessee followed up with the 30th pick, and took.. Britt. So these two will be watched side by side for a while to see who turned out better.

Next is Clint Sintim, taken 45th. Where does he play, asks Wonder (who liked him in general, but rated him as a 3rd rounder). If you wanted MLB, why not take Maualuga? Sintim is not quick or fast enough to be taken at this 45 spot. Not fast enough for OLB. Best as an inside LB in a 3-4, the tackler guy, not the cover guy. So where does he go, asks Wonder. One hope… the guy can hit and the guy can tackle. Groom him to play MLB. But certainly not able to play the Mike on 3rd down. I asked Marvelous about Sintim, and he has a much more favorable review… “He’s a keeper, he’ll be a starter down the road. I saw him play two games this season. He is a quick guy for his size. Wraps up guys well, aggressive. When he gets to a guy he is not going to let the offensive player break the tackle.” Wonder’s response was disagreement on the issue of his speed. “NOT FAST ENOUGH.”

A nice uptick to leave the first day with- the reviews on William Beatty. Wonder had the guy rated 24th overall in the draft, so that should tell you something. “He is good and solid in every aspect of his game. Agile. Long arms. He needs some muscle, but that is what the weight room is for. Get some muscle. He has the body to fill out and add 25-30 lbs. (currently 6’6″ 307 lbs.) He needs to hold his own on the bull rush, but that is precisely why he has ~two years behind Diehl/McKenzie to step into that role.”

I have a fondness for second round Offensive Linemen… makes me think of Pro Bowlers like Chris Snee and Jumbo Elliot. The game is won and lost on the line of scrimmage, so this pick was inspiring. After all, we are not getting the ball to Nicks in three or four years from now (when McKenzie is out of football) IF we cannot keep the QB upright. Wonder thinks that Diehl could move back to the right side and let Beatty play LT. Marc Ross (Director of Scouting) says: “Natural LT.”

Why not take Maualuga as the #1 LBer? Why take a WR at all? Why did Maualuga drop? Wonder believes it was because people do not see him as a 3 down LBer. They question his ability to cover. The reply is that you are not going to ask this guy to cover the TE in the seam, so he’ll be fine. He went SEVEN PICKS BEFORE SINTIM! Are you going to tell me that Maualuga and Sintim are essentially rated the same and both are going to have similar careers? The Packers fronted us at 26, traded up to grab Matthews, and that was the end. Instead of taking a LBer #1, we took a WR instead and then had thin pickings at 45. My sense is that we were outplayed on the LBer pick, with Matthews going 3 spots in front of us in Round 1 and Maualuga going 7 spots in front of us in Round 2. This can happen to you when you are trying to look for a player to fall to you. Beatty fell to us, NO QUESTION ABOUT THAT. A good LBer did not.

Ross made some interesting remarks about the weight gain (14 lbs.) by Nicks. He hurt his hamstring, could not work out and the Giants scouts/front office took him at his word. “We thought his (pro) style would easily transfer to our level.”

Reese on Nicks: Young kid, only 20 years old. Big strong body, Anquan body type. Reese said he had 4 players they were ready to take at #29 and would have been happy with any of them. They did not come close to trading up OR down.

FINAL RECAP:1) Edwards was two birds in the hand vs one WR currently in the bush.2) I do not believe in taking WRs in the first round of the draft, so I am biased, be it Nicks, Britt, whoever.3) Our problems with LBer have always been lack of speed. Boley has speed, but the quick take on Sintim is that he does not offer that.4) Beatty has the potential to be a cornerstone of the OL for many years. It is refreshing to see the organization commit resources to this unit in a significant way for the first time in 4 years.

Before anyone gets too excited about it ‘only’ being a 2nd round pick, it is #34 in the draft vs. the Giants #31 (1st rounder) that was being proposed. Plus, from the details being kicked about, the salary for the new deal could be ~9M/year. I do not have as much information about the deal (i.e. details about Hall’s headcase coefficient), but assuming he was NOT the big troublemaker he was portrayed to be, I would have liked doing the deal. IF he was deemed to be a big headcase and/or doing the deal now started squeezing cap space for Strahan/Umenyiora/Burress, then you MUST understand why the Giants passed. Either way the Giants felt the best course was to keep their first pick and their money (Garafolo points to this and also offers a possibility the Giants could get their hands on Asomugha). Don’t fight it. Reese is a scout and he believes (as does Marc Ross) that they will get a very good player at #31 and that they had to opt out. Next.

The new Director of Player Personnel is Marc Ross. While working for the Eagles, Ross was responsible for bringing in players such as Brian Westbrook, Lito Sheppard and Derrick Burgess. Some excerpts of what he had to say about the draft:

“You never want to pass up good players. If you have players of similar talent, similar value – their value is close – then you should push it toward the need end, I think, but if there is a huge discrepancy and you have somebody on the board that just has so much more value than the guy you have at the position of need, then you have to go with the guy who you have the higher value on. No doubt about it.

“Good players are going to end up playing and if you force a bad player into a position of need, then they may not end up playing anyway. I have had that happen in drafts (for the Eagles), where we try to force players just because we needed them or you thought you needed them. You end up with a position of strength at this time in the year to maybe a position of weakness where if you would have drafted the best player then that wouldn’t have been an issue. It seems like here they have done a great job in doing that. Taking the best players and they have found a way to get them on the field with (Justin) Tuck and Kiwi (Mathias Kiwanuka). Good players are going to play. They will find a way to get on the field.

“I am glad they cut the time down on the draft this year so it won’t be as long as some other years (the time between first round picks has been reduced from 15 to 10 minutes). This is my first time picking this low. We picked low a lot in Philadelphia, so I am used to waiting for a while, but this is the first time picking this low.

“I think we are in a good situation to take the best player, because in the first round a lot of teams do take for need. I think there will be some players sitting and waiting for us with that last player who probably should have been drafted higher. That is my thought going into it. My thought is that we can find just as good a player at 31 as we can at 10.

“You never know where those players are going to come from. Ahmad Bradshaw would have been (the 250th player taken last year), but if you stack the board again this year and he might have been in the first round. You just never know where those guys are going to come from. I am not discouraged. People have been saying that every time we won a playoff game, ‘Oh, it is messing up your draft pick.’ But I look at it as a challenge. I have total confidence that we are going to get a good player where we are picking.”

Reese is a scout. Ross is a scout. The scout mantra is pick’em and play’em. I like the 31st pick in the draft, and his remarks make me feel that much more confident. (See previous post for more color on why- it is like a second rounder.) Reese and Ross know very well that if they give up the pick for Hall, they could be giving up a lot. For all we know, both clubs go into the draft w/o a deal and may make one after the first 30 players have been chosen when NY is on the clock. But either way, it is very interesting to see the scouting culture well entrenched at the Giants front office.